Jerk Halloumi Salad

The second of my Habanero recipes is a Jerk Halloumi salad. I got the idea from Simon Rimmer's Barbecue Halloumi recipe which I tried it out at home once. It's very nice but Chayne thought it was a bit heavy so this time I made my own Jerk dressing and used the marinated Halloumi in a salad with sweet potato and sweetcorn instead.

Ingredients
1 block of Halloumi, sliced reasonably thickly
1 habanero chilli, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 inch fresh ginger, roughly chopped
1 tbsp thyme leaves
2 cloves
½ tsp ground mixed spice
1 tsp curry powder
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 sweet potato, peeled and sliced thickly
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
120 g Herb Salad (Sainsbury's is good)
1 tbsp chopped coriander leaves
1 small can of sweetcorn
1 tbsp lime juice
3 tbsp olive oil

Recipe
1) Pre-heat the oven to 200c. Begin by making the jerk marinade. Slice the Halloumi reasonably thickly as If you slice it too thinly it can break up. Set aside in a large bowl. Then chop the chilli, garlic and ginger, and put this all in a mini chopper or a blender with the thyme leaves, cloves, mixed spice, curry powder and salt and pepper. Blitz this and pour over the Halloumi. Mix gently with your hands making sure the cheese is all evenly covered.

2) Peel and slice the sweet potatoes, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle the chilli flakes over the top and roast in the oven for 20 minutes or until soft.

3) While the potato is cooking, get your salad ready. Put the leaves in a bowl, add the chopped coriander leaves and the sweetcorn. Make the dressing by mixing the lime juice and olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.

4) Heat a griddle pan until very hot and add the Halloumi. Cook until brown on both sides.

5) Season the salad, reserving some dressing to drizzle over the Halloumi and sweet potato. Put a good few handfuls of salad on each plate. Then place Halloumi slices and sweet potato on top. Drizzle with the dressing and serve.

Hot Sauce (The chilli plant part one)

Two songs went around my head as I was making this. As I started chopping the Habanero Chillis I was happily singing 'I'll bring the hot sauce', a line from Unhappy by Outkast. However, half an hour after finishing chopping the chillis, the chorus from Kasabian's Fire came to mind as my hands started burning. The lesson? Wear gloves when chopping habanero chillis. We have an abundance of habaneros on one of our chilli plants at the moment and unless you're one of those people who goes for the hottest thing on the menu at an Indian restaurant it is tricky to use them all up. So I decided to preserve them in a Tabasco-style hot sauce. You may not want to have it on your chips but it's great splashed on a cheese feast pizza. This is the first of four recipes using the habaneros. I have also made a vegetarian chilli (which is very much like my other vegetarian chilli), huevos rancheros and a jerk halloumi salad. Recipes for those coming soon...

Ingredients
85 ml water
25 ml red wine vinegar
2 habanero chillis
1 red pepper
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tsp salt

Recipe
1) Grind the cumin seeds in a coffee grinder or bash them up in a pestle and mortar. Chop the red pepper and habanero chillies and put in a saucepan with the water, red wine vinegar, spices and salt. Bring all of the ingredients to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes.
2) You can either transfer this into a food processer and use the stick blender to puree the mixture. I'd recommend using a food processor in order to avoid hot sauce splashing into your eyes.
3) Sterilise a 150ml jar by washing it in warm soapy water before putting it in a low oven (100c) for 10 minutes. Then pour the hot sauce into the jar and seal.